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| Moored at Fains-les-Sources |
8.5°
C Sunny, cool start, heating up to the low 30s again later. Cool wind. Set off
at 9.05am on a long pound (2.14kms) with houses on the left and a busy road and
railway on our right. We had to wait while lock 43 Rembercourt filled. It had a
lock house with extensions that was lived in and washing spread out on the
fence in front of the front door. As we left the lock a girl on a VNF moped
went down the towpath. Lock 44 Varney also had a lock house, but this one had a
posh garden with a high clipped hedge surrounding a lawn and inflatable
swimming pool at the same level as the
canal below the lock. Below the lock
there were trees both sides and wide empty fields stretching to low wooded
hills on our left. Just before the next lock the railway came very close to the
canal again on our right. We had to wait again while lock 45 Chacolée filled. I
went in to make a cuppa and some cyclists stopped to ask Mike questions, but he
couldn’t hear them for the noise of the water coming over the gates behind him
as the lock emptied. Our young lady on a moped came back up the towpath to
check where we were – not as fast as her usual clients! Above lock 46 Moussey
there was a U-shaped pontoon arrangement, but it wasn’t for mooring as there
were no cleats to tie to, maybe to protect rare plants like an SSSI? There was
a collection of smart new bungalows on the edge
of the town. The girl on the
moped was at the lock and lifted the bar before I got to it, there was a
Langollen-type counterbalanced lift bridge immediately below the lock. I told
her we had lots like that in the UK but not mechanised like this one (she
pressed buttons in the cabin to work it) the ones we used to work had either a
rope or a chain to swing on or a spindle to wind. She was impressed, especially
when Mike showed her a windlass – his chrome plated one that we now use as a
paperweight on top of the charts and maps. At Moussey there was a lived in lock
house and the tarmac towpath changed to crushed stone. Another long pound,
1.7kms to the next. There were big maize fields on our right between the canal
and the railway. Lock 47 La Doeuil had a boat in it. Had a short wait while a
small German cruiser from Karlsruhe cleared the lock. More open fields on the
left below the lock. The young lady on a moped went on down the towpath. It was
a dragonfly and butterfly day, another Red Admiral paused on the cabin roof,
but not long enough to be photographed. There was a nice house at 48 Neuville.
A man was sitting in a car by the rods with the door open listening to his
radio. I was invisible. Lock 49 Grand Fraicul no longer had a lock house. There
was a field of maize between the canal and the railway with forest beyond it.
Another short wait while lock 50 Petit Fraicul filled. No lock house and more
fields of maize. Lock 51 Bois d’Ecuyer was also
empty. Mike lifted the bar for
a change. There was a lived in lock house as we were getting close to the town
of Revigny plus there was a road next to the house which went across the canal
below the lock. More maize and an enormous electricity distribution centre with
masses of pylons and wires heading in many directions. Zapped the post above
lock 52 Revigny, but no light flashed, maybe the bulb was broken, we continued
round the bend to the lock. It was full with a red light. Hmm. Reversed back to
the post and zapped it from 2m away – it worked. Above the lock there was a
wooden decked quay with bollards and picnic tables (all empty) next to a VNF
workshop with vans and a lorry and a moored pusher tug called Asterix. (No good
for us we wouldn't have got any
satellite TV) Down the lock, still more maize
fields along the canal. Another wait while lock 53 Notre Dame de Grâce filled.
No house and there were lots of wasps building mud nests under the roof of the
new lock cabin and around the case for a life ring. Took photos. Wait while
lock 54 Damzelle filled. No house and more wasps nests around the lock cabin.
Lock 55 La Haie Herlin had a lived in extended lock house with a beautiful garden
down at the level of the canal below the lock. Mike took photos of one of the
remaining posts for restricting mooring before locks – limit de stationment.
Under a railway bridge and there was a long quay with gantry cranes on our left
with a big (working) steel works where they were cutting coiled steel sheet to various sizes.
So engrossed in looking at such a rare sight we forgot to look for a zapper
post on the very short pound, but the next lock, 56 Braux had red and green
lights on so we guessed either the two were linked or the girl was working the
lock as a péniche houseboat called Night & Day was just leaving the lock.
Our young lady was at the lock collecting zappers. End of her section, she
said, and all the locks now were activated by capteurs (sensors). We had a chat
in English as she said she needed to improve her vocabulary. She’d had a tumble
off her moped and had scratched her arms plus she had a black eye – she said she
had a bigger bruise indicating her derriere. I pointed to
the moped on our
roof, she hadn't noticed it, and said Mike knows all about riding one. She said
she came off when the bike went down a big pothole. Au’voir and off on to the Vitry
section. There was a British widebeam moored on the bend and we said hello to
the skipper as we passed, then cursed because we’d inadvertently gone through
the sensors for the next lock, 57 Contrisson, which were a long way from the
lock and we’d intended to moor on the pound we were on. Oh well, see what it’s
like below. We went down lock 57, found nowhere to moor as the banks were rough and
full of reeds, it wasn't very far to the sensors for the next lock either, so we winded below the lock and reversed through the
sensors to go back up the last lock and then had to wait as there was a small cruiser
coming down. Up 57 again and knocked pins in next to the piled towpath edge above lock 57 with
a great view across fields with sheep and horses and a donkey. It was 2.45pm. The
girl came back to check what we were doing. All OK we would go back down 57 in
the morning.
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| Lift bridge at Moussey |
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| Lift bridge and lock at Moussey |
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| Wasps nesting under the roof of new lock cabin |
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| Limit de stationment post |
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| Moored at Contrisson |
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